Friday, March 21, 2014

Happy India
beat Pakistan … Mishra is Man of the match… Lot happening at
Bangladesh………. At Mirpur, India coasting to another victory over Pakistan in
World Cup… before that a target of 150+
is considered good in T20s … close to 200 is match winning…. They had to chase
190 ~ and for qualifying – to achieve that in 14.2 i.e., in 86 balls –
impossible one would say instantly……….. Ireland was left heart-broken as
Netherlands achieved the impossible in style – scoring that in 13.5 overs
losing just 4 wickets and qualifying to the Super 10.

Indian bowlers especially
Amit Mishra and Ravindra Jadeja ensured that Indians would have nothing of that
sort… they had to chase 130 … and they did achieve that easily. Off the last ball of the Pak innings, Maqsood
belted to long-on and scampered for 2, Jadeja’s throw zeroed in correctly for
Mahendra Dhoni to break the stumps….. a run out… Run out is a method of dismissal in the sport
of cricket. It is governed by Law 38 of the Laws of cricket. A batsman is ‘Run
out’ if at any time while the ball is in
play no part of his bat or person is grounded behind the popping crease and his
wicket is fairly put down by the opposing side.

Proverbially
Cricket writers repeat the cliché ‘setting the ground ablaze’ whenever there is
a great batting performance…. But heard of ‘stumps ablaze’ when broken………. It
is happening now … in fact when Dhoni broke the stumps, the bails and stumps
glittered !!! wonder, how .. read on !!

Powered by hidden low
voltage batteries, once the wicket is broken, the bails instantaneously flash
bright red thanks to LED lights and send a radio signal to the stumps which
also light up. That is all about technology enlightening spectator and more
importantly helping in judging properly a run out or stumping. International Cricket Council (ICC) has
followed Cricket Australia (CA) in literally lighting up the stumps and bails
during the ICC World Twenty20 tournament here in Bangladesh. In 2012, CA
announced that they are enhancing spectator experience at the Big Bash League
Twenty20 tournament by adding LED stumps and bails which illuminate when
dislodged.

We saw that for the first
time in the India-Sri Lanka warm-up game; it is
"The Zing Wicket System, created by South Australian manufacturer
Zing International; it has a sensor in the bails that can determine within 1/1000
of a second when the wicket is broken”. Once the wicket is broken the bails
instantaneously flash bright red LED lights and then send a radio signal to the
stumps which also ignite. They are powered by low voltage batteries in each of
the bails and also in the stumps."
- so just like the graphic equalizer dancing with lights, the technology
of light emitting diodes, light up the wickets. The technology still would not determine
whether it was Dhoni’s hand or the ball which broke the stumps and whether he
had the ball in the gloves at the time of breaking the stumps.

So another precise moment
– one can see the illumination and determine whether any part of the bat or
body of the batsman was inside the crease at the time of impact to decide on
run out; as also stumping. So, from now
on, when victorious, the players will not be able to run away with the stumps
as souvenirs ~ because it is no longer ordinary timber – but one decked with
LED lights. The high-tech stumps,
marketed as ‘Zings’ by an Australian firm, are expensive and thus precious. “We
have $40,000 worth of patented technology out on the field at each game and
that is a lot of money. Each bail costs as much as an iPhone. We can’t afford
to give them away to players at the end of a game,” says Zings inventor Bronte
Eckermann.